A technology magnet program, due to start at two new high schools in 1996, will top the agenda at today's abbreviated Howard County school board meeting.Board members have agreed to end the 4 p.m. meeting early to be able to attend the 6 p.m. funeral of William T. Manning, a former school board chairman who died of cancer Saturday.Today, board members will receive a staff report on the magnet program, still under development.That plan calls for the 605-student School of Technology to close at the end of the 1996 school year, after the last of its students have graduated.

Instructor Rod Pratesi glanced at the chart shown on the overhead projector and asked his class a question: "Do we have a debit or a credit for merchandise inventory?" Hands were raised, the answer -- debit -- given. The six students in the class were all paying close attention. Pratesi, until recently a teacher at Atholton High School, has moved to Howard County's Applications and Research Laboratory as part of a plan to transform the county's technology magnet into a career academies program designed to serve more students.

By Fritz McCormick and Fritz McCormick,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | May 22, 1996

The brick, two-story home under construction at 6300 Eastern Star Way, in Columbia's River Hill Village, is starting to come together.Having kept close to schedule throughout the winter, the work crew -- all of them students from the Howard County School of Technology -- hopes to put the finishing touches on the three-bedroom home and its two-car garage by the beginning of June.Their labor on the $325,000 house, including almost all of the design and construction, is the swan song of a vocational education program that over the past 17 years has erected nine homes in Howard County.

By Tawanda W. Johnson and Tawanda W. Johnson,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | June 30, 2004

Middle school pupils who attended Howard County public schools' careers summer camp learned an important lesson: Technology can be fun. The fun was audible in laughter emanating from a kitchen, where pupils learned to bake a cake. And it was visible when students donned white coats and goggles to extract DNA from wheat germ. "This is really good," said Daniel Myers, who was licking a chocolate-covered spoon after getting the cake-baking lesson from Eric Queen, a culinary captain for Longhorn restaurants.

Start with a 52,000-square-foot building in Rockville, add subsidized rents, blend in the know-how of the state's business and financial community, and simmer gently for three to five years. Maryland and Montgomery County officials believe that's the recipe for adding home-grown biotechnology and information technology companies to the Interstate 270 corridor. Those officials and about two dozen budding entrepreneurs attended a ceremonial "topping off" yesterday of the $4.5 million Maryland Technology Development Center.

The technology magnet program should be expanded to Oakland Mills High School next school year, a school official recommended at last night's school board meeting.If approved, the expansion would reverse a Howard County school board decision earlier this year to limit the program to two schools.Also last night, the board approved a toughened policy against tobacco use that will allow administrators to expel students caught smoking or using other tobacco products more than three times.An expansion of the technology magnet would begin with one course for Oakland Mills freshmen in fall 1998 and would grow by adding courses for the next three years until all grade levels are included, said Eugene Streagle, instructional coordinator in charge of high schools.

Colleen Schenning knows she would like to be a pediatrician some day. When the 13-year-old enters River Hill High School in the fall, she probably will join the school's Technology Magnet Program and study biotechnology. To that end, Colleen is spending the first week of summer vacation hooking up a computer, baking a cake and researching a vacation she won't take. She is one of about 100 Howard County pupils spending this week at the Technology Magnet Program's summer camp. "I wanted to learn more about the program and to find the area that I wanted to study," Colleen said.

THOUGH HE SITS at the head of Howard County's fiscal table, Charles I. Ecker should consider passing the carving knife before he trims the fat from the overly optimistic capital budget requests his administrators have submitted to him.Top county officials are asking for $94.1 million to fund projects such as road and school construction, public works projects and building renovations. County Executive Ecker has indicated that plans to lop off as much as $20 million before he submits his capital budget to the County Council this spring.

A popular Howard County high school technology magnet program with a waiting list of nearly 300 students last year is dramatically underenrolled this year, officials said yesterday.But, they said, they would like to see the program expanded next year as planned -- with modifications.If the school board approves the plan, students would be able to take one cluster of the program's five offerings at Columbia's Oakland Mills High School, said Richard Weisenhoff, coordinator computer-related instruction, in a report to the school board last night.

Howard County school board members spent much of last night's capital budget work session debating the future of two high schools for which major additions and renovations by 1997 have been proposed.The two high schools -- Centennial in Ellicott City and Wilde Lake in Columbia -- have been the focus of controversy since the school board this past spring voted to redistrict four communities to relieve crowding at Centennial.During the question-and-answer session, some of the five-member board seemed confused over the motive in proposing a $4.5 million addition to Centennial, which is now roughly 200 students over capacity.

Colleen Schenning knows she would like to be a pediatrician some day. When the 13-year-old enters River Hill High School in the fall, she probably will join the school's Technology Magnet Program and study biotechnology. To that end, Colleen is spending the first week of summer vacation hooking up a computer, baking a cake and researching a vacation she won't take. She is one of about 100 Howard County pupils spending this week at the Technology Magnet Program's summer camp. "I wanted to learn more about the program and to find the area that I wanted to study," Colleen said.

School board to set spending priorities for 2003 budget The Howard County Board of Education will meet to set category totals for the fiscal year 2003 budget at 9 a.m. tomorrow in the boardroom at the Department of Education, 10910 Route 108, Ellicott City. The board will hold a regularly scheduled meeting at 4 p.m. May 23. The afternoon session, and an evening session that begins at 7:30 p.m., will begin with a public forum, during which members of the public may address the board on any topic.

Public can address county school board at meeting tomorrow The Board of Education of Howard County will hold a regularly scheduled meeting at 4 p.m. tomorrow in the boardroom at the Department of Education, 10910 Route 108, Ellicott City. The afternoon session - and an evening session that begins at 7:30 - will begin with a public forum, when members of the public can address the board on any topic. Those who wish to speak are asked to sign up in advance. The board meeting scheduled for May 31, during which the board will adopt the fiscal year 2003 budget, has been changed from 9 a.m. to 8 a.m. Information: 410-313-6682.

Five years ago, Howard County school officials transformed their vocational education program into the glitzier technology magnet program, to parents' and educators' cheers. Now, parents and officials are beginning to debate the future of the program, concerned that it is taking up space in crowded or growing high schools, that it costs too much and that it might not be adequately serving the students who are enrolled in it. "I hear so much about the tech magnet," Superintendent John R. O'Rourke said.

By Lorraine Gingerich and Lorraine Gingerich,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | January 25, 2001

THE RIVER Hill High School chapter of the Maryland Technology Honor Society has been visiting middle schools to tell the future high school students about the Technology Magnet program. Senior Aneesha Griffin is leading a committee of society members whose mission is to inform students about the program. Howard County's Technology Magnet Program offers a combination of regular high school studies and technology courses. Students take a normal program and participate in school activities at Long Reach or River Hill high schools.

The class of energy, power and transportation students started in January with high expectations. By the end of the year, all 28 would secure internships in engineering, build a car that runs solely on electric power and work together as teams and, ultimately, friends.But questions persisted as the Long Reach and River Hill high school students gathered the first few days in the garage-like classroom in the county's Applications and Research Lab in Ellicott City.Would they get along with each other?

WHY IS the technology magnet program the hottest thing going in Howard County's school system?This is the program that schools officials once worried might flop for lack of interest. They could not have been more wrong.Interest has far surpassed expectations, but the program is too new to expand to accommodate everyone. The result is a lousy lottery system and angry eighth-graders who once believed their applications and minimal math requirements would guarantee admission.A promotional blitz touted the program as come one, come all. Officials modified that signal in recent months, but too late.

The Howard County school board approved yesterday a $41 million capital budget for fiscal 1995 that does not include planning money for an addition to Centennial High School.The five-member board deferred for one year spending $219,000 for planning the addition to the Ellicott City school. Board members said they were uncomfortable with funding the proposal because they lacked details about a technology magnet program for the new western high school that would have required the addition.School officials had wanted to reserve space at the new school for the technology magnet program but were considering redistricting the Dorsey Hall community into the new western high school in 1996 instead.

Start with a 52,000-square-foot building in Rockville, add subsidized rents, blend in the know-how of the state's business and financial community, and simmer gently for three to five years. Maryland and Montgomery County officials believe that's the recipe for adding home-grown biotechnology and information technology companies to the Interstate 270 corridor. Those officials and about two dozen budding entrepreneurs attended a ceremonial "topping off" yesterday of the $4.5 million Maryland Technology Development Center.